ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Takuma Sato gave Honda-powered teams a boost in the pre-qualification practice session with a lap of 1 minute, 01.5293 seconds to claim the top spot on the time sheet.

Sato, competing in his first race in the No. 14 ABC Supply car for A.J. Foyt Racing, was in the top five the previous day after two sessions totaling 90 minutes on the 1.8-mile, 14-turn street circuit. Will Power, driving the Chevrolet-powered No. 12 Verizon Team Penske car, was quickest (1:01.4467).

Three rounds of qualifications to determine the Verizon P1 Award winner and set the grid for the 110-lap Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg commence at 2:05 p.m. (ET). NBC Sports Network will broadcast qualifications at 2:30 p.m., and will broadcast the ninth IZOD IndyCar Series race at St. Petersburg at noon (ET) March 24.

Click it: Practice 3 results

Power (1:01.7386) was second in the session after an overnight rainstorm washed away much of the tire rubber and left a few wet sections on the course for the morning round. James Hinchcliffe, driving the No. 27 GoDadd.com car for Andretti Autosport, was third and Tony Kanaan was fourth in the No. 11 Hydroxycut KV Racing Technology-SH car. Sebastian Saavedra was fifth in the No. 6 Dragon Racing car. All are powered by Chevrolet's 2.2-liter, twin turbocharged engine.

A red flag was shown after the No. 5 Team Venezuela-Andretti Autosport-HVM Racing car driven by E.J. Viso made contact with the concrete barrier entering Turn 10 off a long straight.

"We  were just starting the day's practice and the front right suspension failed and went straight to the wall," Viso said. "I believe it is going to be all OK for qualifying. But I had to stop my run because that happened.  I am fine."